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Recent arrivals…
….at Thistle Hill. In the background, an English Traditional Devon™ heifer just brought up from the recip farm in Georgia. She’s a Cashtiller/Jaunty 8-month old beauty. In the foreground, a ™bull calf born here a few weeks ago to TDA 4. And the sire was Ashott-Barton Falcon. Here’s where it gets complicated, so pay attention: The heifer is a full sister to the little bull’s mother. Do they know they’re related? Talk about a family reunion! Then there’s this late arrival…just a few hours old. (Hang on now.) His sire is Churchill, who is a brother to the heifer above and uncle to the little bull above. Got it? The…
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So far, so good…..
….our Traditional Devon America™ bull, Churchill, has a second calf to his credit. She’s a day-old in this picture, the daughter of a Senepol/Devon cross heifer. The birth was easy (easy for me to say)….we saw the heifer go into labor…drove back across the street to get a tag…and the calf was actually already on its feet by the time we got back. We’ve used Churchill over several more pure Devon and this weekend he heads to our partner Bill Walker’s farm in South Carolina. His full brother, Wellington, will be in the trailer on the return trip, along with a half-dozen other English Devon.
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Testing….one…two…three…
….testing. We have bred three of our Traditional Devon™ America English bulls to American cows now….part of developing a track record on our imported genetics. Here are two by either TDA Churchill or TDA Wellington….we’re not sure which…the DNA people aren’t even sure. We hadn’t anticipated that problem dealing with flush mates. But we’re sure the lab will finally figure it out. One thing we notice in the bull calf at the left….he brings nice thickness all the way forward. American cows are notorious for weak shoulders. It will take a lot more calves to be sure but hopefully English genetics can help our American herds in several respects.
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Passing the early test….
….as we mentioned before we have used our first Traditional Devon America bulls in a limited way both here and at Walker Century Farms in South Carolina. We want to gather data on performance not only with other English cows but various American lines. This was the result in the early morning yesterday…a first calf heifer and her brand new bull calf. Again, this guy was born right at the change-over between the two bulls, Churchill and Wellington. We won’t know for sure who the sire is until we check the DNA. So far, we can say tentatively that the bulls seem to be excellent heifer sires. The deliveries have been…
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Another milestone….
…another successful experiment. We decided to try our English traditional Devon bulls on a few of our heifers…here at Thistle Hill and in South Carolina. And yesterday afternoon, without any warning, came the result: a heifer calf by a fairly small heifer. Delivered without problem. The problem is we’re not sure which bull is the sire: Churchill or Wellington. Both were with her right at the conception date. We’ll let DNA sort that out. Meanwhile, Mom was busy holding court all afternoon….introducing the curiosity to the other heifers who are waiting their turn. We liked that the dark ruby red coloring of the English animals prevailed. This was a thoroughly photographed…
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Where to begin….
….well, to coin a phrase, “start at the beginning”. Posting has been non-existent for almost a month, but not because there’s been nothing to report. It’s breeding season and Wooz here discusses strategy with our vet, Dr. Monica O’Brien. AI comes first, and we’re using two sires across some of our best cows: Traditional Devon’s Falcon (our English bull) and Rotokawa 243, who has given us some wonderful calves in the past. After that, came sorting the herd into groups….getting the right bulls with the right females. In all, we’ll be using four bulls this time: Jackpot and U2 plus limited use of two Traditional Devon bulls, a son of…
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A ‘foundation cow”….
….is not a designation we use in the “Devon world”. But if we did, R2 would certainly merit the honor. Purchased almost as an afterthought from Lakota Ranch seven years ago, she has been a steady star performer. R2 comes from the same Lakota family that sired a top Devon bull, “Bud”, who became a star performer for Bill Roberts. That line is almost as prevalent in our herd as Rotokawa. R2‘s daughter, T2, by Rotokawa 93, has maintained the momentum. Visitors often ask to reserve a future calf by her or pay for a flush, which we politely decline. T2‘s latest is this heifer, X2a, pictured at birth. But the next…
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Mission accomplished….
Traditional Devon’s English bull, Churchill, returns to his Thistle Hill pasture after an extremely successful stay at North American Breeders for collection. The tech there called him “fantastic”…and we agree. In fact, grass fed bulls generally are far more fertile than grain fed. With all the news reports about declining sperm counts in western males, we’ve wondered whether the high level of corn fructose in young diets is partly to blame. Churchill is not yet two. He’s been used in a limited way here at Thistle Hill. His brother, Wellington, will be traveling to South Carolina in another month to be tried on our partners’ Walker Century Farms herd. And…